Bed Wood or How to piss away 6 hours of your life

[ChevyNewb]

So we sanded and stained and put 4 full coats of clear on our bed wood. Basically lovingly caressed every square inch of the boards...they look great!
Struggled for 6 hours putting the boards down with the strips (crawling under the truck, mistake #1)
When we mocked everything up, it all fit perfectly. When we started putting it down (from middle out, like we read) our problem started. Off by an 1/8th here and there. We got frustrated and due to time constraints just bolted everything down.
Came out this morning only to realize our bed wood supplier gave us what we asked for in steel strips. NO COATING at all (mistake #2) So now we will have to remove the strips and sand them, then clear or paint, depending on how bad the surface rust is.
So please learn from our mistakes, we intend to take the bed OFF the truck to install, possibly going so far as to stand it upright. Then sand and lovingly caress the steel strips and then install from one side to the other. I am sure without the agony of lying under the bed on the concrete, we might even enjoy our adventure more...
I will post pics later...

[Steve Hafner]

. . . .

My long wheelbase 70's bed was assembled and then suspended from a lift to be able to install the wood . . . and it worked GREAT !!!

. . . .

[robozride]

Originally Posted by ChevyNewb

So we sanded and stained and put 4 full coats of clear on our bed wood. Basically lovingly caressed every square inch of the boards...they look great!
Struggled for 6 hours putting the boards down with the strips (crawling under the truck, mistake #1)
When we mocked everything up, it all fit perfectly. When we started putting it down (from middle out, like we read) our problem started. Off by an 1/8th here and there. We got frustrated and due to time constraints just bolted everything down.
Came out this morning only to realize our bed wood supplier gave us what we asked for in steel strips. NO COATING at all (mistake #2) So now we will have to remove the strips and sand them, then clear or paint, depending on how bad the surface rust is.
So please learn from our mistakes, we intend to take the bed OFF the truck to install, possibly going so far as to stand it upright. Then sand and lovingly caress the steel strips and then install from one side to the other. I am sure without the agony of lying under the bed on the concrete, we might even enjoy our adventure more...
I will post pics later...

Do you mean to say they were the bare steal strips and you didnt notice before you installed them?

[midniteblues]

you think thats bad how bout this bear with me...

we bought some ruff cut lumber from a local very small mill for wood for the kids truck
well it was wet wood only cut weeks before so i sticked it up in the garage and it dried for about a year while I was workin the rest of the truck
when the time came i took it too work and milled all the correct dimentions and grooves,ran it through the time saver brought it back home and sticked it up again in the garage to make sure it was dry.
we got everything ready for the bed got it mocked up and took a week or so break from the truck
we still needed to drill holes and cut out the wood for the wheel wells and final sand and finish well this was around november and we had made some old clothes stuffed with stuffing for dummies to hang around outside for halloween after halloween the really cool looking dummy hung around the garage for awhile and kept getting put in the back of the truck.
one day the fuel pump went out on my s10 and I needed the garage space too fix it
well the 67 sat outside for 2-3 days (it was supoosed to be nice weather)but one day while at work it rained pretty good afterwards I got dropped of from work and I knew the wood would be stained from the rain(ever see fresh red oak get wet) there was a perfect outline of a dead body stained in the bed wood where the dummie layed.
where the dummie layed was nice but the rest of the wood turned the dark blueish green color ha ha ha
anyways I had too take it all back out again anyways so I managed too run it through the time saver(huge drum sander) again and it did clean up with only about a
1/16" removed. it was truly funny too see the "chalk line" in the back of the truck.
I was upset when it happened thinking I ruined the wood and never though of taking a pic but afterwards I looked back and laugh about it . oh yhea we had bare steel strips at the time to but I knew enough not too leave them outside at all

sorry for the story

[j ripper]

Originally Posted by midniteblues

you think thats bad how bout this bear with me...

we bought some ruff cut lumber from a local very small mill for wood for the kids truck
well it was wet wood only cut weeks before so i sticked it up in the garage and it dried for about a year while I was workin the rest of the truck
when the time came i took it too work and milled all the correct dimentions and grooves,ran it through the time saver brought it back home and sticked it up again in the garage to make sure it was dry.
we got everything ready for the bed got it mocked up and took a week or so break from the truck
we still needed to drill holes and cut out the wood for the wheel wells and final sand and finish well this was around november and we had made some old clothes stuffed with stuffing for dummies to hang around outside for halloween after halloween the really cool looking dummy hung around the garage for awhile and kept getting put in the back of the truck.
one day the fuel pump went out on my s10 and I needed the garage space too fix it
well the 67 sat outside for 2-3 days (it was supoosed to be nice weather)but one day while at work it rained pretty good afterwards I got dropped of from work and I knew the wood would be stained from the rain(ever see fresh red oak get wet) there was a perfect outline of a dead body stained in the bed wood where the dummie layed.
where the dummie layed was nice but the rest of the wood turned the dark blueish green color ha ha ha
anyways I had too take it all back out again anyways so I managed too run it through the time saver(huge drum sander) again and it did clean up with only about a
1/16" removed. it was truly funny too see the "chalk line" in the back of the truck.
I was upset when it happened thinking I ruined the wood and never though of taking a pic but afterwards I looked back and laugh about it . oh yhea we had bare steel strips at the time to but I knew enough not too leave them outside at all

sorry for the story

Timesaver!!! That they are...
Posted via Mobile Device

[midniteblues]

Originally Posted by j ripper

Timesaver!!! That they are...
Posted via Mobile Device

yes they are except when not set up properly.ever see a kick back from one of them lol. guys in our shop were known too set'm on fire.

anyways

fyi we did our wood with the bed on the frame I think it helped keep too it square. and we used a cordless drill that had a adjustable clutch set lightly and a couple long flex extenstions with a socket too cinch down all the bolts after they were started with you fingers of coarse.

if you only got a little surface rust on them strips maybe try some clr to clean them

[ChevyNewb]

oh man that would be funny to have the outline of a body in your bed wood.
Robozride, yes we had just the plain steel strips, and to be honest it just did not dawn on me that they would be untreated. Live and learn. I like the idea of suspending the bed, I believe IF we have to do it over, that is the way we will go...

[cdowns]

i'd think about gettin those strips powdercoated for the longest life// while i was at it i'd also go to the hardware store and get stainless bolts for them too

[ChevyNewb]

ya, maybe for the cost of the powdercoating, I should have just bought the stainless ones...my son was questioning me about that anyway, I encouraged him to chip in at anytime for the cost of those!!!